Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum end Cavs’ winning streak with smooth physicality

BOSTON — The drama came late, but with enough intensity to fulfill the game’s enormous promise.

The matchup between the defending champion Boston Celtics and undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers lived up to its billing as one of the premier matchups of this young regular season. Boston dominated the first half. Cleveland, looking to keep its perfect season intact, recharged with a big run in the third quarter. As if to announce to everyone inside TD Garden that his team would not go down easily, if at all, Donovan Mitchell clapped his hands vigorously after cutting into the Boston lead early in the fourth quarter.

And so the Celtics, after getting lost early in the second half, had to figure out how to outlast the confident, surging Cavaliers. With the action on the field chippy and the Cleveland defense not conceding any ground, buckets were not easy to produce. To salvage a 120-117 win, Boston needed Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum to overcome all the Cavaliers’ defensive aggression.

“I thought they both handled the pressure and the physicality well,” Joe Mazzulla said. “And we lulled the offense. We played a little slower, but it was more important to get the right spacing. It was more important to read our drive-and-kick. And they did a good balance of handling the pressure, driving to attack, driving to get to the free throw line, drive to find guys. So I hope teams continue to be physical because it just gets us reps and I thought they handled it really well.”

The Celtics’ skill often carries them. They have made more 3-pointers over their first 15 games (287) than any team has ever drained in a 15-game stretch. But to create these opportunities, a team must push the edge. In Tatum and Brown, Boston has two of the biggest, strongest wings in the league. When they utilize their power, as they did for most of the game Tuesday night, an opponent better boast size all over the perimeter.

It wasn’t all the Cavaliers’ fault they didn’t have enough of it. With Dean Wade, Isaac Okoro and Caris LeVert all injured, the Cavaliers lacked most of their players with the combination of height, muscle and mobility to slow down the Celtics’ two All-Stars. Early on, it became clear that Cleveland would run into some trouble against Boston’s penetration. Even solid individual defense from the Cavaliers was sometimes not enough.

Four minutes into the game, Tatum once tried to drive past Sam Merrill, but failed. Tatum started to try again, but Merrill stayed ahead of him for the second time. Given Tatum’s size advantage in the matchup, Merrill, not necessarily known for his defensive impact, did an admirable job of staying in front of the All-Star and keeping him off the edge.

It didn’t matter. Just by posing such a significant threat, Tatum had already created the advantage his team needed. Based on the other Cavaliers’ defensive positioning, they were deeply concerned about Tatum’s chances of penetrating the paint. Their fear of what he might do to Merrill allowed Brown to open up to a death. Tatum didn’t actually have to beat Merrill to beat him. After Mitchell snuck off Brown to clear the paint, Tatum set up an open 3-pointer with a simple pass to Brown.

The Celtics targeted the Cavs’ smaller guards. Darius Garland was Jaylen Brown’s primary defender. (Winslow Townson/Getty Images)

At their best, the Celtics viciously expose a defense’s vulnerabilities. On Tuesday, they often targeted Cleveland’s smaller guards. Three of Brown’s eight assists came with Darius Garland as his primary defender. After Cleveland pulled within two five minutes into the fourth quarter, Boston twice chased that turnover. Brown drove slowly to a spot about 10 feet away from the basket before bumping Garland twice to create enough space to shoot a short jumper. Although the attempt missed, the Cavaliers could not secure the offensive rebound. Brown capitalized on the same play later in the possession. He drove to his left, beat Garland, drew the defensive help and found Tatum in the corner. Thanks to how Brown forced Cleveland into scramble mode, Tatum was able to beat a Jarrett Allen closeout and finish a dunk that put Boston ahead by four points.

Tatum and Brown scored all 12 of their combined fourth-quarter points at the rim and free throw line. They combined for five of Boston’s six assists in the quarter; three of their assists came after painting them. Being strong on the rim, they created great offense for their team.

While Brown and Tatum still sometimes settle for tricky outside jumpers (a couple of Tatum’s second-half 3-pointers come to mind), they’ve evened out their physicality this season, too. Maybe it’s because they needed to; Mazzulla believes the league in general is playing with more power. Maybe it’s because they’re older, stronger and wiser now. Maybe it’s because teams looking for a way to disrupt Boston’s potent offense try their best to bump them and push them and challenge them. It could affect Brown and Tatum if they let it.

“They’re trying to rush us, trying to create turnovers,” Brown said. “Because if you don’t do anything, you just sit back and let us tear you apart. It doesn’t work. So it makes sense for them to try to be physical, try to speed up the game a little bit. But we just have to handle it, handle the coverages, take our time, be patient and trust the game and our teammates.”

For the first time in Tatum’s seven-plus-year career, the Celtics are on pace to finish in the top half of the free throw attempt rankings. Fourteenth place might not seem like much to brag about, but after years of landing near the bottom of the league in that category, they’re finally adding free throws to their long list of ways to score. Most of the difference has come from Tatum (8.5 free throw attempts per game) and Brown (7.6), who is on pace to set new career highs in free throw attempts per game. match. Brown is on pace to shatter his previous career high (5.1). After putting on muscle during the offseason, he entered Tuesday ranked second in the NBA in points per game. possession on post-up attempts, thanks in part to an outrageous free throw attempt rate on such attempts. He has leaned into bully ball and overpowered smaller defenders.

Brown has also used his strength to set up teammates for quality shots. Three minutes into the fourth quarter, with the Celtics clinging to a 3-point lead, they ran a play to get him against Garland in the post. Instead of forcing his own offense, as he might have done early in his career, Brown calmly settled into the paint. That forced Allen to shade into the help defense and free Neemias Queta on the baseline. Queta made a foul after Brown dumped it to him.

Brown set up his teammate to score by playing through the physicality of the defense.

“Just managing it, taking care of the basketball, still finding the right reads,” Brown said. “That’s it. Just be patient. Be really patient.”

Fair or not, the scouting report on the Celtics used to say they would unravel in the game’s biggest moments. That they wouldn’t trust their team’s offense when it mattered most. That an opponent could shake them by turning up the intensity high enough. They have solved many of their old problems and continue to evolve.

They didn’t love how they played in the third quarter, letting most of a 21-point lead slip away, but Mazzulla said getting there was still his top priority.

Jayson Tatum fouls Donovan Mitchell in the fourth quarter. (Winslow Townson/Getty Images)

“We were able to tighten up some of the things in the fourth quarter that we gave up in the third quarter and we just showed a level of physicality that we can get to on both ends of the floor,” Mazzulla said. “I thought the guys did a good job. I thought we were physical the whole game, what I worry about more during the regular season is our physicality, our toughness. The details are the second most important thing and it slipped we kind of off in the third. But in the fourth, we picked up on both of those things. But I thought we were extremely physical on the offensive end. And I thought we made the reads well.”

Even while handing the Cavaliers their first loss, Brown said the Celtics “could have played a lot better.” He believed they let off the gas after dominating the first half.

They could still handle the game down the stretch with their physicality. Ending Cleveland’s 15-game winning streak must have been nice, but Al Horford said the Celtics’ focus was on themselves.

“It’s just about us,” Horford said. “It’s not about anything (else). It’s not about proving to the league or anyone or anything. It’s a long season and we continue to make progress to get better.”

(Top image of Jayson Tatum going to the basket: Winslow Townson/Getty Images)